1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing method, and more particularly, to a method of arranging multiple print jobs to allow printing of the multiple print jobs in a single run.
2. Related Art
With the advent of advanced computers and printing techniques, the cost of custom printing, particularly for advertising, has become more cost effective for smaller merchants. However, despite technological advances in the physical printing process, each print job, regardless of the size of the job, requires considerable set up time. In the case of large print jobs, the cost associated with set up is small compared to the overall coast of the job, due, in part, to economies of scale. In the case of relatively small print jobs however, the cost associated with set up becomes an increasingly higher percentage of the overall cost. Accordingly, at a certain job size, the cost of the print job set up becomes prohibitive compared to the actual cost of the printing. Thus, despite increasingly efficient printing techniques, the higher marginal costs of small print jobs continue to be a problem in the printing industry, especially in the area of targeted advertising.
While marketing may be accomplished by mass mailing of advertising literature, sophisticated data information collection schemes have made it more cost effective to target mailings to consumers who are most likely to respond to the advertisement. However, smaller merchants may have a limited advertising budget and a relatively small geographic marketing area as compared to larger, nationwide merchants. As a result, many smaller merchants cannot afford to use targeted mailings because of the high set up costs involved in printing a small job.
In addition to printing costs, mailing costs can also be prohibitively expensive for smaller merchants using targeted mailing. Notably, bulk mail quantities less than 200 mailpieces do not currently qualify for mailing discounts. One way to reduce postal costs is to provide the post office with mail pieces presorted by 3 digit sectional center facility (SCF) (the first three digits that indicate a postal facility that serves and the processing and distribution center for post offices in a designated geographic area), zip code, or by carrier route. Postal presorting refers to the process by which a mailer groups mailpieces by ZIP Code so that the mailpieces are sorted to the finest extent possible required by standards for which a specific mailing rate is claimed. Generally, presort is performed sequentially, from the lowest (finest) level to the highest level, to those destinations specified by the applicable standard and is completed at each level before the next level is prepared. Postal presorting with respect to postal recipient addresses involves physically separating mailpieces based on minimum qualifying quantities for a given classification of mail, such as carrier route (the addresses to which a mail carrier delivers mail), 3 digit (SCF) 5 digit ZIP code, a destination designation scheme, an automated area distribution center designation (AADC), or a mixed AADC groups. The more specific presorting of mail a sender can perform, the larger the discount. For example, a bulk mailing sorted by ZIP code receives a larger discount than a mailing presorted by SCF. Most importantly, there are minimum quantities required for a single job to qualify for discounted rates. For discounted standard mail, the mailing must contain a minimum of 200 mailpieces with at least 150 to a single 3 digit SCF postal region. For discounted first class mail, the mailing must contain at least 500 mailpieces with at least one full tray of 3 digit sorted mailpieces. Consequently, smaller merchants rarely can take advantage of the postage discounts afforded larger merchants because the quantity of the smaller merchants' custom mailpieces is often below the minimum thresholds set by the Post Office.
During printing of mailpieces, databases, postal hygiene software, and postal presorting software can be used to automatically presort in a computer and then print the mailpieces in sortation sequence ready to be bundled with the same presort group, such as SCF, Zip code, or carrier route. However, this method works best for volume runs. Small print jobs that would not normally qualify for discounts typically require mailing at a full first class rate and manual application of stamps. Alternatively, a batch of small jobs can be printed separately and combined, then presorted into appropriate ZIP code bins. Mail presorting facilities and mail presorting equipment can be used to presort mail, but these solutions can be prohibitively expensive, requiring costly mechanical automated equipment or extensive manual labor.
To qualify for bulk mailing discounts, mailpieces must be Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) certified before mailing. CASS is a system designed to check the integrity of addresses within the United States. When an address passes through the CASS, it is verified against a database containing a comprehensive list of mailing address in the United States. This address database is issued by the USPS and is updated bimonthly. If an address passes this verification, four digits are appended to the end of the five digit ZIP code and three extra digits (a delivery point code) are added to a separate field created in the database. Additional information is also added to several other fields within the database for use by other software that sorts the addresses according to United States Postal Service (USPS) regulations for postal discounts. Both CASS certification and presort processing are required to take advantage of discounts offered by the USPS, and these savings can be significant. For instance, a letter that normally would cost $ 0.37 to mail, could cost as little as $0.174 by taking advantage of CASS and presorted bulk mail discounts. Furthermore, by bar-coding mailpieces, manual handling of mail and the associated costs are reduced. Normally, when a piece of mail enters the Post Office, it may be manually processed many times before being processed further by automated machinery for mailing. The same piece of mail, when bar-coded and presorted according to Post Office guidelines, can avoid most of the manual processes and several of the automated processes as well.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide a method for more economical printing of small print jobs by reducing the set up time for the job. In particular, there is a need to be able to process multiple print jobs in a single print run and allow the content of each page printed in the run to differ by as much as 100%. Further, there is a need to provide an efficient method of combined presorting of multiple different mail jobs during the computer preparation of these jobs such that they could be printed sequentially in presort sequence so that the different mail runs become a physical single job with appropriate mailing discounts and volume economies as the job exits the printing machine.